Tornado Waikato 21/12/05

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 21:32

Had a great storm chase day in the Waikato with the highlight being a distant Tornado out the back of a Thunderstorm we had been watching over the northern Hauraki Plains.

Photo's have not reduced well, perhaps Brian or Ricki have better.

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 21:40

This was the Thunderstorm that spawned the Funnel.
photo taken shortly after

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 21:52

Saw plenty of good cloud build ups and Lightning today.

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Wed 21/12/2005 21:57

Great photos

An early Xmas present I'd say

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Wed 21/12/2005 21:58

Yes, an interesting day.

We were originally closer to the area where the tornado formed and spotted the funnel there as we were heading away.

but at least we were lucky enough to see it.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 21/12/2005 22:04

awesome day!!!
yes, we were in the right area, but was heading in the wrong direction at the wrong time! .Saw some good lightning strikes too!!
my pictures attached

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:05

Watched this storm develop to our north, it then passed over head and as it moved east of us produced the Funnel.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:13

Wow!!!! That sure looks like you guy's had a awsome time!! Wish I could've been there. I think you guy's should go chasing in a group more often and then tornadoes would result more!

Any idea on your thoughts as to why it was produced? Landspout etc? Is always good to learn.

I can see Foggy in the photo! lol.

Cheers

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:23

I've darkened this photo, shows up our Tornado a little better.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 21/12/2005 22:24

Any idea on your thoughts as to why it was produced?

the sun managed to come out for a while before that CB line arrived, and also being in the hauraki plains area, and there was a surface northerly, drawing in warmer moist air from the firth of thames,and a colder gust front developing in behind that, and some amazing instability (i.e the photo where you can see the tall and lanky foggy and we are all pointing at a towering cumulus, that cloud was going up REAL fast, some of the bests updraughts i have seen! )

Angel · Unread post by **Angel** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:33

aww i'm so jealous.. we had heavy rain today.. i wish i'd had my camera out cuz the rotation in the clouds was pretty bloody cool.. didnt even produce a stinky water spout.. Instead i got soaked delivering pizza

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Wed 21/12/2005 22:47

Good shots lads

Did that tornado actually touch ground?

JohnGaul
NZTS

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:49

Has it been mentioned at all in the media?
Send it to TV one

What a wonderful chase that was, I learnt so much in terms of where to go during a storm etc and the discussions between Brian and Steven was fantastic.. spwill surely is a snapper!!

And ricky's work with the comms and wireless internet was very valueble

Did you guys get much back on the return? Just some recent heavy showers here.

Here's that T/Cu which just exploded right in front of our eyes. Rolling Cu at first, then turned into a Cb after it hit Te Aroha in about 15 minutes!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Wed 21/12/2005 22:52

Angel wrote:aww i'm so jealous.. we had heavy rain today.. i wish i'd had my camera out cuz the rotation in the clouds was pretty bloody cool.. didnt even produce a stinky water spout.. Instead i got soaked delivering pizza

Heh!

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Wed 21/12/2005 23:22

That was a fun day!

Here's a few of my pics.. looks like we all got very similar tornado ones.. the speed of that convection over the plains was awesome

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Wed 21/12/2005 23:25

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Wed 21/12/2005 23:30

Did that tornado actually touch ground?

From our vantage point we thought it was low enough to be impacting at ground level.

Has it been mentioned at all in the media?

Unless it damaged property I guess it's not news.

Did you guys get much back on the return?

Just steak, salad and fries. Some nice Cb's about though.

A fun day, hope we get out again this Summer.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 21/12/2005 23:57

midnight here, just got woken up with thunder and torrential rain and hail!!
13mm of rain in that shower!
i see pukekohe got 21mm in that shower that just went past us while we were at bombay at 10:30m that morning!
see:
http://www.tokaanuskihire.co.nz/pukekoh ... rgraph.gif

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Thu 22/12/2005 07:43

midnight here, just got woken up with thunder and torrential rain and hail!!
13mm of rain in that shower!

Wow. Still unstable and showery this morning. I notice the 500mb temp is colder over Auckland (-20C) than Invercargill (-17C).

Any idea on your thoughts as to why it was produced? Landspout etc? Is always good to learn.

Yes, a landspout tornado. A surface northerly coming in from the Firth of Thames with a backing in the low level winds to WNW at 1000m. I think there was a local surface boundary moving through the area at the time as well.

I think many NZ tornadoes, particularly those in the summer, are landspouts, (as opposed to mesocyclonic tornadoes). They are normaly F0 rarely F1. I think the march Greymouth tornado was evidence that the landpout process (spin up) can lead to a signifcant tornado with possible F2 damage there.

spike_01 · Unread post by **spike_01** » Thu 22/12/2005 08:08

Great pics guys... I heard via another MB there may have been one, but those pics confirm it... Well done...

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Thu 22/12/2005 11:51

Did you get those group photos spwill?

Further heavy showers under relatively shallow instability today, 18c with a westerly breeze.

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Thu 22/12/2005 15:48

Foggy said,

Did you get those group photos spwill?

Okay.
Left to right, Foggy, Ricki, NZstorm, Brian and spwill.

jrj · Unread post by **jrj** » Thu 22/12/2005 16:27

What a handsome bunch of dudes!
Seasons Greetings.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Thu 22/12/2005 22:07

Great photo guys!

I'll have to come up some time in the future when a storm looks like brewing.

Cheers

Manukau heads obs · Thu 22/12/2005 22:13

thinkin about that day more.....where it formed was where there was always from the start a heavy cumulus build line...an hour before hand...there was definately a convergence there....from a northerly from the north...
wish we had gone further north to be under that, LOL